THE BIG PICTURE!

Laura Weinholtz from Denver, Colorado was with Captain Pancho of the Tailhunter Fleet near La Paz when she hooked this huge bull dorado not far from Bahia de los Muertos on a live bait. It’s the largest dorado so far of the season. She had a pretty good trip! She also got a wahoo. See photos below!

Damon Chin from Massachusetts was on his first fishing trip to La Paz and fishing with Tailhunter Sportfishing and got a wahoo pretty much bigger than him on his first at-bat! He needed a hand from his buddy, Tim Mistler and Captain Gerardo who is about 6’5” tall. Fish is estimated at about 65 pounds.

Good start for the Pacific NW! Captain Arcangel with Kelly Steck from Washinton and dad, Ed, from Oregon and a nice pair of dorado to start the week!

Megan Garrison tied into this beautiful wahoo just outside of Bahia de los Muertos and got it to the panga to pose. Megan is from San Diego. Thanks to Gary Wagner for the photo. Megan was staying at his place a Rancho Costa.

Doctors in the house! Jim Good and his son, Marshall Bell, are both heart doctors from Colorado. They got a nice little adrenaline buzz off these two dorado south of Bahia de los Muertos.

What a week for Arizona cattleman, Rick Skaaler, and Captain Gerardo with another big fish. This time, a hefty roosterfish. Released.

From Park City, Utah, it was great to finally get Jim Pankow down to visit us. He scored one of the larger dorado with our La Paz fleet so far this season fishing with Captain Boli.

Captain Armando shares a smile and photo with our Denver amigos, Diane and GaryKaiser and their dorado.

Big smiles from Dr. Marshall Bell and his dad, Dr. Jim Good, who baited our first striped marlin of the season then had himself quite a stand-up battle just off the east side of Espirto Santo Island. The fish could not be released. Father and son are from Colorado.

Hard to have more fun than Katie Skaaler from Arizona who got her first wahoo with us and Captain Gerardo!

From San Diego, Karl Ferreira, only had one day to fish with us and did himself well with several dorado in the box and brought to dinner at our Tailhunter Restaurant for dinner!

For someone who hasn’t done alot of fishing, Laura Weinholtz had herself a dandy week of fishing including this nice wahoo with Captain Pancho.

Funny pose with Captain Jorge and amigo, Craig Weitzel, from Denver and a couple of schoolie dorado.

Good bonito action for both our fleets with several species of bonito. Anyone who doubts the feistyness of these members of the tuna family has never had one on a hook! They pull perhaps harder pound-for-pound than anything in the water. If they were only 50 pounds larger ,they’d probably yank fishermen right into the water. Captain Pancho and John Ehlers, our amigo from Colorado, with a big fat bonito!

DORADO FINALLY JOIN THE ACTION

Good sunny weather and diminishing winds helped conditions improve although there are still some big patches of cold green water and erratic fishing patterns as the season still tries to get in gear. Some high spots. Some low spots. Every day seemed different. Hot fishing spots changed daily. Bait availability changed daily. What we caught changed daily.

It’s just traces of winter still lingering as we’re about 5-8 degrees cooler than normal as are the waters. Even my scuba divers are telling me that there’s warm “green water” up on top but then 30’ below the surface the water is clear, but icy cold! Usually, it’s just the reverse. Warmer waters are clear and colder waters are greener. There are also current lines where one side of the current is green and the other side is clear.

Apparently, fishing is erratic all over as we’re getting calls from other locations and folks staying in other areas asking how our fishing is doing!

However, overall, the best thing about the week is that the dorado look like they’re finally joining the show about 1-2 months late! The conditions we’re seeing right now are basically what we should have seen at the end of April or through May, not mid-June.

TAILHUNTER LAS ARENAS/ BAHIA de LOS MUERTOS FLEET

We saw more and bigger dorado than we’ve seen in a long time. Not a lot of mahi-mahi, but anything is an improvement over what we’ve had, especially over the last two years when fish averaged about 12” long! The dorado we saw this week were nicer 8-20 pounders with a few in the 25-35 pound range and it was great to see some actual schools of dorado instead of one or two free-swimmers!

Wahoo are also still around with us getting some fish in the 20-30 pound class, but also one estimated over 60 pounds. Not sure how much longer they will be around as the waters get warmer which is bringing some of the billfish into the waters as we’re seeing more sails, striped and blue marlin hanging out the the surface just waiting for the waters to kick it up a notch or two in temperature and they’ll start biting.

Not much in the way of rooster fish this week but that’s also a function of the fact that folks weren’t really chasing the in-edible rooster fish although they are a spectacular fish to catch and a real trophy. They’re not good eating so most of our clients were out chasing dorado and wahoo. But the fish we did catch were all chunky 30 pound class fish or larger.

Live bait is still an issue. Flyfishers are pretty much giving up although two of our flyfishers did see some action on sabalo and dorado. The flyfishers down here have all pretty much been fishing conventionally if they want to catch fish.

TAILHUNTER LA PAZ FLEET

Very very encouraging to see more dorado finally with 10-20 pound fish in the mix. Better than it has been in a long time. But, a lot of the fish are just not quite ready to go yet.

My captains are telling me the area is set to blow up. Waters are getting bluer away from the islands (still green) and there are dorado everywhere, just not yet feeding on much or not willing to take a bait or lure. But, it’s bubbling and promising to hear that there’s dorado activity that could go off soon!

Same for billfish. More and more billfish showing up and look like they could go on the chew if waters warm and clear up just a tad more .

Inshore, there’s still amberjack, pargo, snapper and cabrilla as well as triggerfish biting nicely.

PACK FOR A PURPOSE

Thanks to our folks who brought us donations this week for our on-going community out-reach programs. So many great things. We just sent several hundred pounds to one of the outlying La Paz communities where they have no water or electricity. This batch might be headed to the women’s shelter. But big gracias to Grant and Carol Darby, John Ehlers and his family with Laura Weinholtz his daughter; Jim and Jeff Pankow from Utah and more Colorado amigos, Diego and Kelly Jimenez plus the Ferreira Family from San Diego.

From Washington, Carol and Grant Darby with toothbrushes, toothpaste, school supplies and toys!

John Ehlers and his daughter Laura Weinholtz with school items, hygiene things and more.

Every year, they bring the big hearts. Diego and Kelly Jimenez from Colorado!